THE two jobs employing the greatest numbers of young people — sales and waiting — need more to get on board, whether they end up in careers in the industries or not.
Hospitality already is short 10,000 staff, and this is expected to rise to 30,000 by 2020, while continued jobs growth in sales means it will need an extra 89,000 staff by next decade.
Both roles can be regarded as ‘dead end’ jobs with many workers using the fact they can get work without a qualification, and part time while at school or uni, before ditching the industry to do their ‘real career’.

Industry associations say there are careers for those who want to stay but also want to lure those who have yet to consider the jobs with the all-round employability skills they can gain before moving somewhere else.
Sales assistants is the top job for people aged 15 to 24 with 277,600 employed.
Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said workers should not see jobs behind the counter as the end of it, but a starting point.
“For many people retail is a stepping stone for other careers,” he said.

“The problem with retail is it often is seen as a job of last resort and it shouldn’t be seen in that way.
“The retail industry has been responsible for a lot of those in jobs that are outside the retail industry.
“It’s very important to remember that retail itself has some very interesting and wonderful careers.”
He said sales assistants could take skills learned such as communication, working as a team and dealing with a variety of people as a basic grounding for what they do later on in life.
“People who have worked in retail and are now doctors — what retail has taught them is both the people skills to talk to people with patients and eventually become doctors,” he said.
“We often find an accountant who has some retail experience in the first instance who has got the skills to be able to talk to people.”
Waiting employs the second largest number of young people (78,000).
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Restaurant and Catering Industry Association chief executive John Hart urged jobseekers to consider what they could gain through the job.
“We acknowledge that there’s a lot of people doing it because they want to do other things and that’s fine and we need to have these people,” he said.
“There’s some really big numbers (of staff) that we need.”
Waiters learn multi-tasking, customer service and teamwork in ways that were being recognised by major companies overseas, Mr Hart said.
“A lot of the major industries are drawing on hospitality staff because they have those sorts of skills,” he said.
“(In the US) financial institutions are recruiting out of hospitality jobs because they have skills that make them really valuable.”
He said employers were such in need of staff they would employ people who did not hold skills and allow them to build them on the job.

The subs are coming, but Holden is going. With unemployment equal highest in the country, the submarines won’t change much — especially if workers come from interstate. Residential construction is busy and builders are seeking experienced workers and project managers to join them. Public sector jobs are growing.

The Victorian government anticipates skills shortages in engineering, health and aged care, sciences, IT, project management and policy. Tourism is growing and business investment is better than other states, but the ABS reported there were 47,300 job vacancies in Victoria in February 2016, most in the private sector — and the highest level in five years. There is a lack of white-collar workers filling vacancies.

Tasmania says it’s headed in the right direction, but late last year the Centre for Independent Studies warned youth unemployment was crippling: “Current youth unemployment rates in the state are leading the ranking across the nation, from 14.9% in Hobart to 26.0% (Australia’s highest 12-month average) in the south east of the state.”

Growth in high-rise residential and refurbishment of government and private buildings sees high demand for contract administrators, estimators, project and site managers, who are hard to find.

New commercial and residential construction is busy. Hays Recruiting reports: “It is not uncommon for a construction company to contact us to recruit an entire new project team.” High demand for skilled building workers and high salaries are on offer. Private sector growth, particularly in outsourced health, is strong.

Mining redundancies are resulting in worker migration from north Queensland to Brisbane and northern NSW in the hunt for work. The high-rise boom in Brisbane has ended but families still looking for homes in outer areas are keeping construction ticking. Coal seam gas is offering steady work. Government jobs are growing.

An oversupply of Darwin apartments, built on a belief that the offshore gas boom would last forever, has seen construction stalled. The population is waiting to see whether the supposed pivot to North Australia will become a reality. Hays recruiting reports there is a shortage of remote health workers. Prospective employees assume there will be higher wages for remote placements, but “this is not the case and candidates are therefore less willing to relocate”.

Skilled builders are being urged to relocate interstate as big mining’s construction phase ends. Recruitment in oil and gas in the north is on contract basis. FIFOs are being asked to do longer stints, which does not appeal to families. Mining automation needs more people with crossover IT skills, but they’re hard to find. Underground gold mines offer most mining vacancies and lithium mines are opening up. Residential construction is quiet.
Waiter Emilia Montague is about to compete in the restaurant service category at WorkSkills national trades competition. Picture: Darren England.
Waiter Emilia Montague is about to compete in the restaurant service category at WorkSkills national trades competition. Picture: Darren England.Source:News Limited
Emilia Montague believes the skills she is learning as a waiter will provide fantastic hospitality career opportunities for her.
Already they have led her to being named one of Australia’s best young waiters, as she will compete in the restaurant service category at the WorldSkills national trades competition in Melbourne next month for workers aged 24 and under.
“TAFE has very strong partnerships with the top employers and hotels in Queensland, which has allowed me to work at places like The Star Entertainment group, in their top restaurant The Lab, among other places,” she said.
“I hope to take the skills I’ve learned at TAFE and apply them to a rewarding career in hospitality, wherever it takes me.
“There are so many opportunities to work around the world in this career.”
TAFE Queensland Brisbane general manager Aaron Devine said there were more jobs on the cards thanks to new entertainment precincts being built, such as Queen’s Wharf.
“This project will lead to an unprecedented expansion of employment in this sector, meaning thousands of exciting career opportunities for young Queenslanders in the years ahead,” he said.
“Emilia will do well at WorldSkills because she loves what she does, sets high standards of herself and has had great experience with leading hotel and restaurant brands across Brisbane.”
Skills learned in:

Sales
Communication/how to talk to people
Teamwork
Handling money
Work with people with different backgrounds
Skills learned in waiting
Multitasking
Customer service
Teamwork
Work under pressure
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